Desktop Virtualization Revisited Part Two: Microsoft’s Virtual PC
Small, simple, stable and priced right: Is Microsoft's Virtual PC a good introduction to the world of virtualization and a great way to pull Linux into a Windows environment?
Install the Operating System
Before you begin installing the operating system into the new VM, select your new VM in the inventory window and select Settings on the Console. These are the specific attributes for your VM. To make changes to any of the values or locations, the VM has to be powered off. Once you’re satisfied with the settings, click OK to close the Setting window and return to the Console.
Note: You can’t select a bootable ISO image from the CD/DVD drive settings.
Place a bootable CD in the CD/DVD drive and power on the VM by clicking Start on the Console. If you don’t have a bootable CD, power on the VM and when the VM window opens, select CD->Capture ISO Image from the menu. This action suspends the VM until you locate the bootable ISO image. Select the bootable ISO image and allow the VM to boot. Proceed through the installation just as you would for a physical machine.
Virtual PC is a solid program that does exactly what you want it to: It allows you to run multiple operating systems at one time. It is not a heavy production application but it has its place on your desktop. If you need to use your host computer for one task and guest to connect to a corporate network or other resource, Virtual PC is your answer. Response for Windows guests is acceptable as long as you remember to install the virtual machine tools into all your guest VMs. Additionally, if you’re running a host desktop with a newer Intel or AMD CPU with built-in hardware virtualization, Virtual PC now recognizes it and response is snappy.
Though it’s a Windows-only application, it’s small, simple, stable and priced right for any budget. It’s a great learning tool and a gentle introduction to the world of virtualization.
Kenneth Hess is a Linux evangelist and freelance technical writer on a variety of open source topics including Linux, SQL, databases, and web services. Ken can be reached via his website at
http://www.kenhess.com. Practical Virtualization Solutions by Kenneth Hess and Amy Newman is available now.
Comments on "Desktop Virtualization Revisited Part Two: Microsoft’s Virtual PC"
Maybe I’m dense, but I just don’t get why this series of windows applications is in a linux magazine. Who really cares?
More apropos would be digging into the details of bridge networking to VMs on linux hosts or optimizing server VMs using JEOS guests…
If you notice, I’m installing Linux in the VM in the series. It’s about using Linux on your Desktop computer and the series highlights various tools for doing that. Some people can’t convert 100% to Linux for whatever reasons so desktop-level virtualization is one way to keep Windows and use Linux too.
The column is virtualization and I cover all aspects of that beat, including those related to Microsoft–but always with a Linux spin. ;-)
I’m surprised you didn’t mention VirtualBox at all in the article. It runs on most operating systems, it’s open source, and it supports Linux officially. It’s certainly more appealing to me than Virtual PC.
@sandbender: VirtualBox was in the the Part One article. And he gave a pretty terrible review of it, in my opinion.
I will stick with Virtual Box, thank you. Nice to know, though that Microsoft does it as well.